VIDEO: Banner to celebrate Doncaster women’s role in miners’ strike

Lee Peace

A special banner has been created to recognise how women supported pit workers during the miners’ strike.

The banner will help to form the centrepiece of commemorative events in Edlington for the 30th year anniversary of the strike next year.

Edlington residents with the banner.

A group of women in the village have spent the last week sewing it together to look like one used in 1984 which was made out a bed sheet but has since been lost.

The slogan for the new banner is: ‘Lest We Forget. The Edlington Women Against Pit Closures. Keep The Faith.’

Some of those involved were part of the original women against pit closures movement.

Lorna Horne, of Denaby Main, said: “It was an extremely difficult time. But there was always great community spirit.

“We just did what we could. We held rallies and just tried to get more people to support the miners.”

Her artist daughter Rachel, 29, who was born in the middle of the strike, added: “The banner is really special and is based on an original one which spelled out ‘Edlington Women Against Pit Closures’ in red paint on a bed sheet which has been lost. Everyone has been chipping in and its starting to take shape.”

The banner will be put up on display at The Top Club in Edlington before being used at the front of a march through the town in April next year to mark the 30th year anniversary.

Edlington man Frank Arrowsmith, 65, chairman of the Yorkshire Main Commemorative and Heritage Trust, said: “Women’s support was vital during the strike. It is so important to remember what happened all those years ago.

“A lot of the miners are now getting on a bit and the younger generation needs to know what happened. Projects such as this banner help to do that.”